Germany-- CHECK!

I intended to write a blog for each day I was in Germany, but quite frankly, I would be writing forever if I included every detail of one of the best weekends of my life. Yes, I realize every weekend here will probably be the best weekends of my life, but I could not have imagined a better place to start my out of Holland European adventure-- Cologne, Germany!

After class on Friday I left with 5 other SPICE students to catch a train from Zwolle to Cologne, with 3 transfers. Each train ride was about an hour long and filled with cards, coffee, and great conversations. The first transfer went smoothly, but then we arrived in Venlo and realized we had 3 minutes to get to our train. But wait, maybe that's not our train, so we slowed down our pace. Then the best old man in the world said to us, "That train leaves in 2 minutes. Are you going to Germany?" And we said yes. Then he said, "You need that train!" And so we ran, jumped on the train, and about 20 seconds later it took off. We then arrived to our last transfer and boarded the train to Cologne. The train arrived, we walked outside, and BAMB-- there was the most beautiful building I have ever seen-- the Catholic cathedral. Honestly, I can try to describe it and show you pictures of it, but words and pictures will not do this building justice. It's majestic architecture, incredible history, and extreme detail is honestly the most incredible thing my eyes have ever seen. Once we arrived we decided to walk to our apartment. We figured the walk would be between 45 minutes and an hour and were up to the challenge. We stopped at a grocery store for some necessities (food, natural water-- AKA sparkling water, etc) and then continued walking. We thought we knew where we were going, but then stopped every block for about 5 blocks to check the maps. Yep, still in Germany. Yep, the Rhine River is still to our right. After an hour and a half of wandering our apt. owner's crabby phone call, we hopped on a bus to get there quicker. We arrived in the "suburb" shortly after 8pm, unloaded our stuff and then went out to pizza. Yes, we ate pizza in Germany.

Here's the best part. We ordered a beer with our pizzas, because we can. Well, I accidentally ordered a half liter beer... oops. It was huge! But delicious and worth it. After that we just hung out in the apartment for the night and then woke up around 9:30am to explore Cologne. We took a bus to the city center and explored-- AKA more walking. We discovered numerous churches, all with beautiful interior and exterior detail. Here's a little historical fact about this city and that cathedral I mentioned earlier. In WW2, the city was bombed and basically completely destroyed, except for the cathedral. Around the city you can find random walls, buildings, arches, etc that survived the bombing, but other than that the city looks decently modern. A few of the churches we visited we reconstructed in the mid-late 1900's. It's a pretty incredibly historical and beautiful city. We made our way to the Cathedral, and like I said, words can't describe it. Everything about it is... ridiculously amazing. That's the best I've got. Here's what got me: the Cathedral was spared because of respect for the church, yet hospitals, schools, and the like were bombed mercilessly. Sure, they warned the people that they would be bombed, but it's just amazing to me to think that bombing buildings that we tend to view as "safe havens" were destroyed. Incredible.

Because we were in Germany, we felt as though we needed to visit a German pub, and so we did. We enjoyed a beer with some locals and some very interesting pictures, and then went off to find the chocolate museum. I had no idea Germans were so big into chocolate. In the museum there was a mini rain forest to show where the cocoa beans grow naturally, a complete guide to the process of making chocolate, and of course free samples-- lekker!

After a day full of walking and exploring, we decided to head back to our apartment, take a power nap, and go out to eat. Then I ordered wiener schnitzel-- which is not a glorified hot dog like I was expecting. It was however just as delicious as I would have hoped. We then went back to the apartment and got ready to enjoy German night life. It was an excellent time, let me tell you!

The next morning, Karl and I got on an earlier train than everyone else (see last blog for a bitter rambling about that), and made it back to Zwolle around 3:30 this afternoon. It was a wonderful weekend, and all the other European countries are sure going to have to step up their game to impress me. I think this weekend will be hard to top. At the end of the weekend, I am left with 200+ pictures, 2 very tired feet, and way too many memories and laughs. Leuk werk, Germany!